File: verse/wss - item number: 0
1609
THE SONNETS
by William Shakespeare
1
From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And tender churl mak'st waste in niggarding:
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.
etc/adultetc/babbageetc/computitetc/meditationsetc/phys015etc/phys016etc/tipsetc/win7humourspace/nasaspace/sciencespace/space1space/space2space/space3space/space4verse/vol01ww-etcverse/vol02ww-etcverse/vol03byronverse/vol04etcverse/vol05etcverse/vol06Georgianverse/vol09warverse/vol10warverse/vol12Keatsverse/vol13wordsworthverse/vol14Wordsworthverse/vol15Shelleyverse/vol16Shelleyverse/vol17Shelleyverse/vol18.tennysonverse/wss
Find Articles Home.
(Monday, 23 February, 2026.)